Review: Apple Macbook (13″ / 2.0GHz Core Duo)
Posted by Sean Fallon on May 29, 2006
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A few weeks ago Apple unveiled the 13″ Macbook - thereby completing their portable Intel powered lineup.
Now that some time has passed, it’s time to lay down a verdict on the Macbook’s performance.
Reviews:
Arstechnica (9 out of 10): “I found it very hard to come up with a list of negatives about the MacBook—while I am usually pretty fond of Apple stuff, I am still usually able to cobble together a list of annoyances I encounter during my use and from around the web. In contrast, I’ve developed a high opinion of this machine and my anecdotal research for this review seems to indicate that many others are of a like mind.”
CNET (7.5 out of 10): “For everyday Web surfing and working with native applications such as iLife, the new MacBook provides more than enough muscle, though it is no gaming powerhouse. CNET Labs compared performance of the MacBook to older Apple laptops running the PowerPC processor, as well as to the 2GHz Core Duo-based MacBook Pro. Unsurprisingly, the MacBook’s integrated graphics were insufficient for gaming–it trailed far behind the MacBook Pro’s discrete ATI graphics on our games test–yet the MacBook sped ahead of the MacBook Pro on our iTunes MP3-encoding test.”
MacWorld (Recommended): “The MacBook is very impressive, not only compared to the iBooks and PowerBook it replaces, but also compared to its new Pro brethren. It offers almost everything that people would need in a laptop. There’s not much of a performance difference between the 1.83GHz and 2.0GHz models running Intel-native apps, but Rosetta does somewhat better with the faster processor. If you use non-native apps often, and prefer a SuperDrive to a Combo drive, consider one of the faster models. But if you’re a hard core 3-D gamer, the MacBook is not the Mac for you.”
Product Information:
Click here for features and specifications for the 13″ Intel Macbook.
Bottom Line: The 13″ Intel Macbook offers a good mix of value and performance for the Apple faithful. However, if you are interested in gaming on a Mac, you will need to look to a pricier model.
Keep in mind that the full potential of Intel based Macs will not be realized until the software is configured properly to run on the new chip. Until then many programs will need Rosetta translation software.
Posted by Sean
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